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The keynote speaker says politicians are not aiming high enough for economic reform

As the Senate votes on financial regulatory reform, and the stock market experiences a massive one day slide, Yale is hosting a conference on Money and Morals. The event’s keynote speaker says politicians are not aiming high enough as they look to reform the economic system. WNPR’s Harriet Jones reports.

Benjamin Friedman of Harvard University is the author of "The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth". He argues that even before the crash of 2008, most Americans had not experienced true economic advancement in the better part of a decade as their wages and living standards stagnated. Speaking on WNPR’s Where We Live, Friedman said while financial regulatory reform is a laudable goal, it won’t solve our longer term problems.

"It does nothing to change the trajectory, the direction, the growth of the economy, as long as we don’t have a financial crisis – it’s not intended to do that. Merely to go back to where we were ten years ago, seven years ago, five years ago, and continue along that path but with no crises, is I think not sufficient."

Friedman advocates a fresh investment in K through 12 education as a to reequip the U.S. workforce to be more competitive in the global economy.